B/CS Receives Average Rainfall For 2012, Drought Spreading Elsewhere

The drought in Texas continues to get worse even though parts of the state like Bryan-College Station had normal rainfall this past year.

Farmers and ranchers are hoping for more consistent rainfall this year.

News 3 spoke with the State Climatologist to find out his predictions for 2013.

Things are looking green in this part of the Brazos Bottom in Burleson County near F-M 166.

Jay Wilder's family has been farming just outside Snook for 100 years.

"They were good timely rains all year long. There was a period in there you know we could have maybe spread them out, gotten them a little sooner than we did, but it was really good," Wilder said.

His stock tank for the cattle is finally filling back up too.

"It was pretty well dry not long ago. Even though we'd had pretty good rains throughout the year," he showed.

While recent rains are helping keep the wheat crop green here, that's not the case everywhere. 87 percent of Texas is currently in drought.

Just ask Tony Luksa. He and his neighbors' stock tanks are drying out.

A world of difference just a few miles west of Caldwell off Highway 21.

"It was really slim after the spring rains and we just haven't had any runoff water to catch any in the ponds. And we just need more rains for the winter pastures," said Luksa.

John Nielsen-Gammon is the State Climatologist and a professor at Texas A&M.

"The Brazos Valley did pretty well with rainfall this year. Overall it was fairly close to normal. Statewide was running near normal until the end of September and then the past three months, October to December were the third driest on record," said Nielsen-Gammon, PH.D.

While it's too soon to forecast what the summer skies will bring, signs of drought aren't too far from us with many conditions expected to linger.

"You don't have to go very far to the north or south and it's a problem," said Jay Wilder.

While things were a lot more bearable heat wise and rainfall wise in 2012 compared to 2011, this past year is set to go down as likely the warmest or second warmest year on record.

That's because of hotter low temperatures throughout all of the year.

State Climatologist John-Nielsen Gammon predicts the fire danger will be less in the coming weeks because of expected rainfall.

For 2012 B/CS officially received 41.18 inches of rain while the normal amount is now 40.06 inches.

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